The Original Thirteenth Article of Amendment
To The Constitution For The United States

"If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour, or shall without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office, or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince, or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them." [Journal of the Senate]

On March 12, 1819 the State of Virginia, with the enactment and publication of the laws of Virginia, became the 13th and FINAL state required to ratify the above article of amendment to the Constitution For The United States, thus making it the Law Of The Land. With the enactment of Act No. 280, March 12, 1819, which was Voted, En Bloc, and publication of the Revised Code, the State of Virginia notified the Department of State, the Congress, the Library of Congress, and the President of their action by issuing to each a copy of the Laws of Virginia. [See VA 1819 Images] . In fact, the Journal of the Virginia Senate; Tuesday, May 1st, 1810 (Pages 511-512 shows that the resolution to amend was properly enrolled and ratified on that date by the Virginia House and Senate, to be laid before the President of the United States, therefore the first state to ratify.

This Article of Amendment is intimately connected to questions of loyalty, honesty, war and national defense. It is designed to combat internal subversion and discord sowed by people who are adhering to powers foreign to the Congress of the United States without stepping across the bold Constitutional line of treason. The authors of the TONA wrote it after some additional experience with how the British Empire, as well as other European nations, actually conduct their affairs. It is a corrective and supplemental measure to go along with Constitutional treason.

This Article of Amendment added an enforceable strict penalty, i.e., inability to hold office and loss of citizenship, for violations of the already existing constitutional prohibition in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 on titles of nobility and other conflicts of citizenship interest, such as accepting emoluments of any kind for services or favors rendered or to be rendered, and is particularly applicable today in the 21st Century as government is increasingly FOR SALE to the highest bidder, as foreign nations and multinational corporations and individuals compete to line the pockets of politicians and political parties to accommodate and purchase protection or privilege for their special interests, i.e. with honors, such as money or allowing dual-citizenships.

In terms familiar to the common man, this might quite properly be called the use of bribes and graft by individuals and powers foreign, i.e. external, to the Congress of the United States to subvert the constitutional process and suborn our political system and the interests of WE THE PEOPLE.

After appearing in numerous official publications until 1876, this Article "disappeared" from our Constitution, to be replaced by another made nearly 50 years later. You may well ask how such a thing could have happened. So did we.

It is of particular interes to read the last three paragraphs of the preface to"Echoes From The Cabinet," published in 1896 .... click here .. To understand why our legislators mad it disappear.

The disappearance of the original 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has been under investigation by independent modern researchers during the past
years. We've learned a lot.

We now know that the original 13th Amendment was, and still is, the Law Of The Land.

The law is still there, waiting only to be publicly recognized and enforced once again to protect the Sovereignty and Interests of WE THE PEOPLE, and to force the elected representatives of the people to adhere strictly to their solemn and binding Oath of Office, i.e., "I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and
faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to
enter. So help me God." , and to the limitations of government imposed by the Constitution.

This site is brought to you directly by the primary researchers themselves, functioning as the TONA Research Committee. We are dedicated to continuing this research, and to placing all the facts and news on this important subject before the public.

The TONA Research Committee hopes that the hard and sometimes tedious work of the committee and the personal sacrifice of time and money involved over the past
years will have a positive effect for you and our nation. The excitement of finding each new hidden piece of the puzzle has made it worthwhile for us.

September, 2002 -- An exciting find has come into our hands, "Military Laws of the United States to which is prefixed the Constitution of the United States", published in 1825 under the authority of the War Department. See Military Law Book Images and the Chronology of its Publication.

Shortly thereafter, The TONA Research Committee received images from a high school principal who had located an 1818 Digest of the Territorial Laws of Missouri in the Missouri Supreme Court Library, Jefferson City, MO ... The Organic act for Missouri Territory, of June 4,1812, separating Missouri Territory from Louisiana, became effective December 7, 1812. These images with those of 1816 Massachusetts and 1818 Pennsylvania indicate that the 13th Amendment was ratified prior to 1819 ... See Missouri Law Digest Images

February 2003 -- Rep. Marple, prime sponsor of the New Hampshire Resolution 10 above, sent the TONA Committee copies of pages from the NH Journal of the Senate, Dated June 12, 1812, that has these surprising statements on pages 48 and 49:

Page 48:

"The following was received from His Excellency the Governor, by the Secretary.

To the Senate and House of Representatives.

I herewith communicate to the Legislature for their consideration, certain laws and resolutions passed by the Legislatures of Georgia, North-Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Vermont, upon the subject of amendments of the Constitution of the United States, together with letters from the executive officers of those States.

WILLIAM PLUMER"

Page 49:

"Voted, That Messers. Kimball and Ham, with such as the House of Representatives may join, be a committee to take into consideration certain laws and resolutions passed by the Legislatures of Georgia, North-Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Vermont, and other documents accompanying the same, communicated this day by His Excellency the Governor, and report thereon. Sent down for concurrence."

Members of the TONA Committee have long suspected that Virginia ratified the TONA in February, 1812, prior to the March 12, 1819 date of the publishing of the Revised Code of the Laws of Virginia, but we do not consider these New Hampshire journal entries as definitive. However, they are substantive.

March 2006 -- Two private publications, The True Republican, published in 1841, and the Constitution-Federalist, published in 1862 during the War Between The States, were found. Images of their pertinent pages may be seen on the Private Publications page.

March 29, 2006 -- A very high quality private publication, Echoes From The Cabinet, published in 1855 before the War Between The States was found by Steve Kouroyen, who was able to open and scan the pages. The images of the pertinent pages may be seen on the Private Publications page. The TONA Team has two other copies, too delicate and brittle to open and scan.

If you would like to become an associate member of our research team please send us an email. We would be pleased to welcome you as a member. And any small donations to help support this website will be gratefully accepted.

America The Beautiful

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Last updated: March 29, 2006